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Much like its Chevy Silverado cousin, the GMC Sierra 1500 is an excellent all-around pickup. Its greatest improvement over its Bow Tie cousin is its styling, which is more of a departure from the previous generation than the Silverado. The range of EcoTec3 V-6 (4.3 liters) and V-8 (5.3 liters or 6.2 liters) powertrains is the same as in the Chevrolet, all of which provide class-competitive performance and fuel economy, and the same slight issues found in the Silverado are present in the Sierra. Namely, the eight-speed transmission behind the 6.2L V-8 is very upshift-happy, which is good for fuel economy, but downshifts can feel harsh under full throttle.

However, interior quality is on par with or better than its competition from Ford, Ram, and Toyota, and a high-lux Sierra Denali is available for true hedonists. The Denali is arguably the most luxurious pickup available today, featuring high-grade leather and a long list of standard features.

The extensive use of high-strength steel in the frame endows the Sierra with a relatively svelte curb weight, although the aluminum-bodied F-150 is lighter still. Even so, the Sierra’s 5.3L V-8 gives it the best fuel economy of any V-8–powered ½-ton pickup on the market, along with the mechanically identical Silverado. That’s the powertrain of choice, as it provides enough power for most chores and avoids the lumpy eight-speed transmission of the larger V-8.

Although we chose the F-150 as our 2015 Pickup Truck of the Year, there’s nothing wrong with the Sierra, and it would make an excellent truck for most buyers.

REVIEW

Warming up to Big Jim

With spring finally arriving in Michigan, and with an ample 5600 break-in miles under our Denali's belt, it finally was tested, and we learned some performance secrets: Simply flat-footing the accelerator in RWD prompts some wheelspin, and the automatic upshifts at 5500 rpm -- curiously 100 shy of the power peak. Manually upshifting just ahead of 5500 (so the shift happens at 5700) shaves a noticeable tenth or two off the 0-60 and quarter-mile times. If you absolutely must get the jump on the uniformed Denali driver in the next lane, select Auto-AWD and do a brake-torque launch to shave another two-tenths, for 7.4 seconds to 60 mph, 15.7 at 88.0 mph in the quarter. That 60-mph dash is about a half-second slower than our last F-150 XLT SuperCrew 5.0-liter and Ram Sport Hemi (both with 4WD, weighing within 100 pounds of Big Jim). Opting for the 6.2-liter drops that to 6.0 seconds, but in 99 percent of daily driving in a beast this large, my accelerator foot never hits the floor, so I don't pine for that thirstier engine one bit.

We've spent a few months settling in, augmenting our winter warrior with some ex-works essentials. To keep the vast floor area from becoming a salt lick, we installed a custom set of WeatherTech Laser Measured FloorLiners ($190) that fit so snugly they can't move around, though only the driver mat uses retainer pins. And to preserve the paint in the bed, we opted for a fuzzy Bed Rug that will be kind to the painted things we'll carry. The $430 price included professional installation, which was done in the dead of winter. We wonder if the metal had sufficiently warmed to the recommended 68 degrees, because some of the adhesive hook-and-loop fasteners have detached from the bed. We also had to trim the liner to expose the factory's under-rail LED bed lighting. We like that the Bed Rug bridges the floor-to-tailgate gap, so mulch and loose materials don't fall through, but we don't love the fact that the tailgate won't shut unless you clean out that area.

A quick, painless dealer visit took care of our tire-pressure monitoring fault and an exhaust-overheating recall. Trips to the far north and west coasts of the Mitten State have revealed this to be a superbly quiet, comfy cruiser, impervious to truck ruts, crosswinds, and tire-eating potholes. Fuel economy is also trending up, as we're no longer tempted to pamper ourselves with lengthy remote-start warm-ups. We now look forward to towing and hauling various summer-fun gear.

GMC makes its contribution to the app universe with the GMC Trailering App, available free starting today in the iTunes store. Naturally, the just-introduced 2014 GMC Sierra is featured prominently in the artwork and videos featured in the app.

When we heard that we would finally get the chance to take a new GM pickup to the track, in this case a four-wheel-drive 2014 Sierra 1500 Crew Cab SLT Z71 with the 5.3-liter V-8, we were excited to see how it would do.